AP - With communities in the Midwest still under water, Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday criticized Republican John McCain for opposing federal spending on flood prevention programs and opened a new debate in the White House race.

Reuters - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon signaled on Friday that he would press ahead with a plan to gradually cede key U.N. roles in Kosovo, despite opposition from Serbia and its big-power ally Russia.

AP - President Bush and Congress have settled their differences on terrorist surveillance and Iraq war money. Now attention turns to a potential housing rescue, probably the last major initiative with any chance of passing before lawmakers scatter to campaign for re-election.

AP - Democratic governors who won in states that twice backed George W. Bush have lessons to offer presidential nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama, one of those governors planned to tell Ohio Democrats on Saturday.

Politico - For most voters, Barack Obama’s shift away from public financing is not as big a deal as the mounting death toll in Iraq, surging gas prices — or even what they’re going to make for dinner tonight.

AP - Call it campaign growing pains. Or bad luck. Or a combination of the two.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton needs Barack Obama's donors to help retire her sizable debt. Obama, who's forgoing public funds for the general election, could use her donors to boost his ample fundraising.

AP - With communities in the Midwest still under water, Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday criticized Republican John McCain for opposing federal spending on flood prevention programs and opened a new debate in the White House race.

AP - European Union leaders want their nations to fingerprint all foreign visitors and take other new steps to keep out illegal immigrants as part of a sweeping security overhaul proposed Friday.

AP - The House on Friday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country.

AP - Jimmy Carter has been among the country's most active retired presidents, but even the peripatetic Georgian might not have anticipated having his name bandied about in a presidential campaign 28 years after leaving the White House.

AP - Barack Obama on Friday dismissed rival John McCain's proposal to allow offshore drilling as an election-year conversion, arguing that it will not lower gas prices for families "this year, next year, five years from now."